Yep, and it was pointed out that Her Majesty was originally placed after Mean Mr. Mustard and before Polythene Pam, but Paul later thought it didn't work there on the Abbey Road album so it was deleted there. You can hear the last chord of Mustard at the beginning, and it stops abruptly before Pam.

Queen is one of favorite bands and I definitely do not underrate them. They are within my top 20 favorite bands...possibly in my top 10 if I really took the time to rate my favorites..and that is saying much from my perspective because I like many bands.

I do see where you are coming from. One of my very favorite bands is Jethro Tull but I do not know many people who feel the same way about them as I do. It is way cool for me when I do meet them and share my joy of them.

Oh yes, Happy Birthday to Paul. Cool he is still with us on this third rock from the sun.

Way back in June 2003, in this very thread, I posted regarding how I hoped that one day, in the not too distant future, they would re-master and re-issue Magical Mystery Tour on DVD. Now that day, 9 years later, is almost here. In early October, the 8th or 9th I believe, Apple will re-issue MMT on Blu-Ray and standard DVD. Alos, in late September it will be re-released for a limited engagement in selcted movie theaters. There will be recent interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as outtakes and deleted scenes.

It's exciting news. With today's technology,, and the care and expense that are customary put into remastering Beatles works, I really have high hopes
for MMT.

..It wasn't always certain that Love Me Do would be the first single, anyway. Producers were all-powerful then, and George Martin had a ready-made pop tune for the group to record: Mitch Murray's How Do You Do It?. After a quick and competently unenthusiastic run-through, the Beatles balked, insisting on recording their own material. Martin eventually went with Love Me Do, and gave How Do You Do It? to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who took it to No 1 in April 1963.

The difference between the two songs shows just how anomalous Love Me Do was in autumn 1962. How Do You Do It? is charming, catchy but just too pat: the ebbs and flows of teen romance are captured in lyrics that err on the side of cloying. The melody boxes the group in, and they are reduced to sounding collectively cute – not a happy aural experience nor a true reflection of their characters. Murray was born the same year as Lennon and Starr, but might as well as have been on a different planet.

In contrast, Love Me Do is, once you get past the primitivism, is soulful and bluesy. There is a swing and drive to the harmonica playing and the harmonies that belie the impression of tentativeness. The lyric, while entirely within period romantic cliches, is both slightly awkward – "love me do": who ever says that when they're chatting someone up? – and direct ("someone like you"). Which makes it a pretty faithful expression of teen courting rituals, with their mixture of uncertainty and desire.

As the first Beatles' hit, this unassuming but forceful record has had a long after-life. The second version was included on several best-selling UK EPs and LPs and went Top 5 when rereleased in 1982 as a single. Right at the end of the first flush of Beatlemania, in late May 1964, it hit No 1 in the US – a strange turn of events for an 18-month old song. This in turn ensured its place as the opening track on the 1 album, which has sold over 31 million copies during this century.

And a commenter at the link added this link with a half-century ago video reminisce of the Fab 4

The video at the bottom of the site, IMHO the only way to listen to it is the volume dialed up to 11 and then a bit more

In the Summer of ’67, I discovered two things that changed my life. As much as I would like to be able to tell you that it was body painting, and sex on acid…I can’t. Mainly because I had only recently turned 11. The first thing I discovered was Mad Magazine (which undoubtedly explains a lot, to long-time readers). The second thing was record collecting. I still remember my very first vinyl purchase, blowing at least three months’ worth of allowance at the JCPenney in Fairbanks, Alaska. I purchased two LPs (at the whopping price of $3.98 each), and one 45 single. The LPs were Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the 45 was “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever”…all by that band that, you know… Paul McCartney used to be in before Wings.

Flash-forward about 35 years or so. I was enjoying my first visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. At the Beatles exhibit, I happened upon a glass case that contained some weathered pieces of paper with scribbles. I lingered over one in particular, which was initially tough to decipher, with all the crossed-out words and such:

“But you know I know when it’s a bean”? Huh? It still wasn’t really registering as to what I was looking at (the mind plays funny tricks sometimes). However, when I got to: “I think I know I mean-er-yes, but it’s all wrong. That is I think I disagree” I realized, Oh.My.(Rock) God. This is John Lennon’s original handwritten draft of “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

Thanks for the link b. Good for me to see.

I, too, fondly remember the influence of George.

I remain..influenced...in a very good way and I thank George.

Last edited by FrodoTook on Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.